Let me startwith the obvious. I have no objections if someone wants to use these images or limited info so long as they give me credit. Alamy recently offered two of my original photos through licence that you have to pay for. Not offered any more.
If I and other bloggers take the time to take photos or images that are our own then it is only fair -and in some cases required due to Intellectual Property laws- that we get some credit.
Now, I have had these pencil toppers for a long time but could not remember howI acquired them. I think my grandparents, who were breakfast cereal buyers, probably saved them for my younger brother. The ones on the stan I acquired in a charity shop back in the mid-1990s.
The pencil toppers were a bit of a joke since the character heads were far too large so youngsters putting one of these on their pencil found them hard to handle. Those on stands have the problem of balance, too. Stands are far too tiny to support such overweighted heads. Ittakes a little careful balancing at times! :-)
The pencil toppers and stand figures are around 2.25 inches (roughly 55mm) tall and are made of a hard plastic. There is VERY tiny lettering on the bottom of the stands and on the cloaks of the toppers. So small I had to get my strongest magnifying glass to read it.
No one is really intertested about these online for any purpose other than selling -reasonable to W...T...F prices. Some sellers are giving figure heights as 3 inches (just under 60mm)! Dates given by all the sellers seems to be 1990. In fact the pencil toppers I have are (c) dated 1989 and the stand figures 1990.
What I was surprised by was the fact that there are so many of these figures out there. But then I found a note on a site not dealing with these figures but casually mentioned. Just as a lot of 'original 1930s/1940s' metal toy soldiers are being cloned and - that makes them knock-offs- being sold at high prices so are many old plastic toy soldiers and "..even the old Kellogg's Snap, Crackle and Pop have been heavily cloned.
With out of production old toy soldiers you find "recasts" or "cloned" being used as a term by sellers to let buyers know these are not originals but copies. Others are less honest. I know one person purchased a full set of Hero Quest figures through nostalgia and he would not say what he paid. It turns out they were "cloned" and sold as genuine. A cloned item should NOT ever be sold at a price higher than out of production -genuine figures- so beware. With 3D Printing and other casting methods you can get conned.
These are by no means rare anyway. They were mass produced and went around the world so be wary of "rare"/"ultra rare" and "extremely rare and hard to find retro collectible". That is nonsense.
I like them because they have a cute look to them. I even...smiled...when I looked at them earlier. They are of no great financial value and that has never been a reason for me to collect things. Display them. Have fun and get a giggle out of them.
Collecting should be fun and you should collect what you like and thoughts of value should be vanguished from your mind!
I would like to know who actually designed these so if saomeone out there knows -let me know!
"SNAP!CRACKLE!ANDPOPS Assemble!!"
g
If I and other bloggers take the time to take photos or images that are our own then it is only fair -and in some cases required due to Intellectual Property laws- that we get some credit.
Now, I have had these pencil toppers for a long time but could not remember howI acquired them. I think my grandparents, who were breakfast cereal buyers, probably saved them for my younger brother. The ones on the stan I acquired in a charity shop back in the mid-1990s.
The pencil toppers were a bit of a joke since the character heads were far too large so youngsters putting one of these on their pencil found them hard to handle. Those on stands have the problem of balance, too. Stands are far too tiny to support such overweighted heads. Ittakes a little careful balancing at times! :-)
The pencil toppers and stand figures are around 2.25 inches (roughly 55mm) tall and are made of a hard plastic. There is VERY tiny lettering on the bottom of the stands and on the cloaks of the toppers. So small I had to get my strongest magnifying glass to read it.
No one is really intertested about these online for any purpose other than selling -reasonable to W...T...F prices. Some sellers are giving figure heights as 3 inches (just under 60mm)! Dates given by all the sellers seems to be 1990. In fact the pencil toppers I have are (c) dated 1989 and the stand figures 1990.
What I was surprised by was the fact that there are so many of these figures out there. But then I found a note on a site not dealing with these figures but casually mentioned. Just as a lot of 'original 1930s/1940s' metal toy soldiers are being cloned and - that makes them knock-offs- being sold at high prices so are many old plastic toy soldiers and "..even the old Kellogg's Snap, Crackle and Pop have been heavily cloned.
With out of production old toy soldiers you find "recasts" or "cloned" being used as a term by sellers to let buyers know these are not originals but copies. Others are less honest. I know one person purchased a full set of Hero Quest figures through nostalgia and he would not say what he paid. It turns out they were "cloned" and sold as genuine. A cloned item should NOT ever be sold at a price higher than out of production -genuine figures- so beware. With 3D Printing and other casting methods you can get conned.
These are by no means rare anyway. They were mass produced and went around the world so be wary of "rare"/"ultra rare" and "extremely rare and hard to find retro collectible". That is nonsense.
I like them because they have a cute look to them. I even...smiled...when I looked at them earlier. They are of no great financial value and that has never been a reason for me to collect things. Display them. Have fun and get a giggle out of them.
Collecting should be fun and you should collect what you like and thoughts of value should be vanguished from your mind!
I would like to know who actually designed these so if saomeone out there knows -let me know!
My figures need cleaning up and there is even a handy colour guide for painting!
g
If there was Doctor Who related giveaways, I went for that. Also . . let me see . . there were busts of famous people, one which was of Captain. Robert Falcon Scott. Memory doesn't recall the others. They're here somewhere. Tin badges (buttons) of Pertwee-era Doctor Who. Soldiers from history. Turks, Highlanders, Egyptians, etc. Characters from 'The Magic Roundabout. The various cards from Brook Bond tea and their albums. You will have started a little earlier I think. I remember these characters. Were they freebies around early to mid-sixties? I am trying to remember what others were around at that time. I think there was even a collection of the Band of the Grenadier Guards, in red plastic, that I have somewhere.
ReplyDeleteCrescent did lots of these give aways -detergent ppwder, breakfast cereals -mainly cowboys and indians but also knights and bandsmen. The ones i this article are 1989/1990
ReplyDelete